James G. Stewart
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James Graham Stewart (May 21, 1907 in
Homewood, Pennsylvania Homewood is a borough which is located in northern Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 104 at the time of the 2020 census. It is a part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Geography Homewood is located in northern ...
– March 22, 1997 in Los Angeles, California) was an American pioneer in the field of sound recording and re-recording. His career spanned more than five decades (1928–1980), during which he made substantial contributions to the evolution of the art and science of film and television sound.


Career

In 1928, James G. Stewart was one of the first employees of the newly established company RCA Photophone. Initially, his job was to install and maintain film sound reproduction systems in movie theaters on the east coast of America, including
Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplac ...
in New York City. Film sound recording and reproduction was a new medium at that time, and Stewart's knowledge of radio made him a significant figure in the integration of sound into motion pictures. His employers sent him to the West Coast in 1929 to supervise theater installations. In 1930, Stewart joined
RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orphe ...
(then owned by RCA), working in their research and development department on a
noise reduction Noise reduction is the process of removing noise from a signal. Noise reduction techniques exist for audio and images. Noise reduction algorithms may distort the signal to some degree. Noise rejection is the ability of a circuit to isolate an und ...
system for optical film sound. When corporate interest in the project waned, he was able to move to RKO's production arm as a 'boom man', recording production sound (the "live sound" recorded at the same time as the picture). For the next several years, he participated in the making of some of Hollywood's earliest sound film classics, including '' A Bill of Divorcement'' (1932) and '' The Lost Patrol'' (1934). After working in the production phase of the filmmaking process for several years, Stewart switched to
post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. The ...
. From 1933 to 1945, Stewart was Chief Re-recording Mixer at RKO, personally mixing hundreds of film soundtracks. The most celebrated aspect of Stewart's work during this period is his collaboration with director Orson Welles, also with a background in radio. He worked closely with Welles on ''
Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...
'' (1941) and ''
The Magnificent Ambersons ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' is a 1918 novel by Booth Tarkington, the second in his ''Growth'' trilogy after ''The Turmoil'' (1915) and before ''The Midlander'' (1923, retitled ''National Avenue'' in 1927). It won the Pulitzer Prize for fict ...
'' (1942). Both Welles and Stewart had tremendous insight into the creative use of narrative sound, and these films demonstrated the spectacular heights to which the cinematic arts can be taken. Stewart left RKO Studios in 1945, when he was hired by
David O. Selznick David O. Selznick (May 10, 1902June 22, 1965) was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive who produced ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and ''Rebecca'' (1940), both of which earned him an Academy Award for Best Picture. E ...
. He was eventually appointed Head of Technical Operations for Selznick International Pictures and oversaw every aspect of production and post-production for such films as King Vidor's controversial '' Duel in the Sun'' (1946),
Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
's '' The Paradine Case'' (1947) and William Dieterle's ''
Portrait of Jennie ''Portrait of Jennie'' is a 1948 American fantasy film based on the 1940 novella by Robert Nathan. The film was directed by William Dieterle and produced by David O. Selznick. It stars Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten. At the 21st Academy Awar ...
'' (1948). In an era when network television was beginning to challenge the film industry for audiences, Stewart worked for Glen Glenn Sound, where he stayed for the next 25 years. Early television post-production emphasized speed and efficiency over artistic innovation, and Stewart's daily routine involved mixing two half-hour shows a day, five or six times the pace he had previously kept during the making of A-level films. Among the dozens of programs he worked on were ''
I Love Lucy ''I Love Lucy'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along with ...
'', ''
The Jack Benny Show ''The Jack Benny Program'', starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series that ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th century American comedy. He played one role throughout his radio and televis ...
'', '' The Real McCoys'' and '' The Andy Griffith Show''. By the mid-1970s, Stewart had changed employer once more, this time to The Burbank Studios (owned by Warner Bros.), where he spent the last five years of his working life. During this time he worked on such films as Martin Ritt's '' The Front'' (1976) and
Paul Schrader Paul Joseph Schrader (; born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first received widespread recognition through his screenplay for Martin Scorsese's ''Taxi Driver'' (1976). He later continued his collabo ...
's '' Blue Collar'' (1978). In 1980, after a career of more than five decades in film and television, Stewart retired.


Partial filmography

Stewart worked on over 250 films during his fifty years as a re-recording mixer. Among these were ''
Little Women ''Little Women'' is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). Alcott wrote the book, originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869, at the request of her publisher. The story follows the lives ...
'' (1933), '' The Gay Divorcee'' (1934), '' The Lost Patrol'' (1934), '' Of Human Bondage'' (1934), '' The Last Days of Pompeii'' (1935), '' Swing Time'' (1936), ''
Bringing Up Baby ''Bringing Up Baby'' is a 1938 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, and starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. It was released by RKO Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures. The film tells the story of a paleontologist in a numb ...
'' (1938), '' Room Service'' (1938), ''
Gunga Din "Gunga Din" () is an 1890 poem by Rudyard Kipling set in British India. The poem is much remembered for its final line: "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din". Background The poem is a rhyming narrative from the point of view of a Briti ...
'' (1939), '' The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1939), '' Abe Lincoln in Illinois'' (1940), ''
Swiss Family Robinson ''The Swiss Family Robinson'' (German: ''Der Schweizerische Robinson'') is a novel by Johann David Wyss, first published in 1812, about a Swiss family of immigrants whose ship en route to Port Jackson, Australia, goes off course and is shipwreck ...
'' (1940), '' The Curse of the Cat People'' (1944), '' Murder, My Sweet'' (1944), '' Spellbound'' (1945), '' Duel in the Sun'' (1946), ''Portrait of Jennie'' (1948) and '' Johnny Got His Gun'' (1971).


Nominations and awards

Academy Award Nominations ( Special Effects category): * 1942 '' The Navy Comes Through'' hotographic Effects by Vernon L. Walker; Sound Effects by James G. Stewartref name="Oscars1943"> * 1943 '' Bombardier'' hotographic Effects by Vernon L. Walker; Sound Effects by James G. Stewart, Roy Granvilleref name="Oscars1944"> * 1944 '' Days of Glory'' hotographic Effects by Vernon L. Walker; Sound Effects by James G. Stewart, Roy Granvilleref name="Oscars1945"> Academy Award WinnerAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards Database (Special Effects category): * 1948 ''Portrait of Jennie'' pecial Visual Effects by Paul Eagler, Joseph McMillan Johnson">Paul_Eagler.html" ;"title="pecial Visual Effects by Paul Eagler">pecial Visual Effects by Paul Eagler, Joseph McMillan Johnson, Russell Shearman, Clarence Slifer; Special Audible Effects by Charles L. Freeman, James G. Stewart]


Innovations

As a teenager, Stewart was involved in early experiments in commercial AM broadcast radio. While at RKO Studios, he participated in the production of the first three-strip Technicolor feature film, ''
Becky Sharp Rebecca "Becky" Sharp, later describing herself as Rebecca, Lady Crawley, is the main protagonist of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1847–48 novel '' Vanity Fair''. She is presented as a cynical social climber who uses her charms to fascinate a ...
'' (1935), made by RKO affiliate Pioneer Pictures. During his tenure at RKO, he also helped design the studio's first mixing console specifically built for film re-recording and to introduce electronic compression into film post-production. For the film ''Portrait of Jennie'' in the late 1940s, Stewart devised an early incarnation of multichannel ' surround sound' technology. Working primarily in television after 1950, Stewart helped usher in such technical advances as reversal ("rock and roll") re-recording.


Technical and historical papers

* “Application of Non linear Volume Characteristics to Dialog Recording” (Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, September 1938) Written with John O. Aalberg. * “The Rerecording Process” (Audio Engineering Society Reprints, May 1970) * “Development of Sound Technique” (The American Film Institute, 1977) * “The Evolution of Cinematic Sound: A Personal Report” (Contained in the book, ''Sound and the Cinema'', Evan Cameron, ed., Redgrave, 1980)


Bibliography

* Carringer, Robert (1985). ''The Making of Citizen Kane'', University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles * Weaver, John Michael. “Studying the Art of Soundtrack Design,” ''Mix'', Vol. 15, no. 7. (July 1991) * Weaver, John Michael. “James G. Stewart: Post-Production Pioneer,” ''Mix'', Vol. 16, no. 9. (September 1992)


Further reading and viewing

Stewart was interviewed numerous times about his methods and his working relationship with the film directors and composers with whom he collaborated. Stewart's comments and recollections are included in the following books and films: * ''The Making of Citizen Kane'' by Robert Carringer, (1985). University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles, * ''A Heart at Fire's Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann'' by Steven C. Smith. Published by University of California Press, 2002, * ''The Medium and the Magician: Orson Welles, the Radio Years, 1934–1952'' by Paul Heyer, Published by Rowman & Littlefield, 2005, * ''Hollywood The Golden Years: The RKO Story'' (1987), BBC Documentary Series. 1988 BAFTA Award Nomination for Best Factual Series * ''Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann'' (1992) Directed by Joshua Waletzky. ASIN: B000TJ0SB8


References


External links


James G. Stewart at the AMPAS Awards Database
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, James G. American audio engineers People from Beaver County, Pennsylvania 1907 births 1997 deaths Engineers from Pennsylvania 20th-century American engineers